May is Mental Health Awareness Month. So, I compiled a list of my top ten favorite books with mental health representation including Anxiety, Social Anxiety, Suicidal Thoughts, Depression, OCD, & Addiction. #MentalHealthMatters
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The Books and Trigger Warnings
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*Trigger warnings are provided from the book’s The Story Graph pages. Click the book titles to read my full reviews of the books.






The Science of Being Angry by Nicole Melleby – ADHD, Depression, & Intrusive Thoughts
CW: bullying, blood, injury, mention of pregnancy and childbirth, anxiety and anger, mention of hospital visit, intrusive thoughts, depression
Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas – Anxiety
Content warnings: Anxiety, Intrusive Thoughts, Medical Content (Trip to the Dentist), Bullying
Small Knight and the Anxiety Monster by Manka Kasha- Anxiety
CW: Anxiety
Icebreaker by A.L. Grazaidei: Depression & Anxiety [18+]
CW: Alcohol, Sexual Content, Depression, Anxiety, Abandonment, Intrusive thoughts, Scene where character takes meds with alcohol
The Sound of Us by Julie Hammerle – Social Anxiety
No CW’s available
TOP TEN by Katie Cotugno – Social Anxiety
CW: Anxiety attack, Brain Injury and Brain Trauma (Concussions), Absentee parenting
Heartstopper and This Winter by Alice Oseman – OCD, Eating Disorder, and Anxiety
*Volumes 3 and 4 talk about Charlie’s OCD and eating disorder
Volume 3:
- Eating disorder – discussion, behavior, and one scene in which a character passes out
- One brief reference to past self-harm
- Brief references to past bullying
Volume 4:
- Anorexia – portrayals of restrictive eating behaviour and other discussions around eating disorders, with a focus on anorexia.
- Self-harm – references to incidents of self-harm (though there is no on-page self-harm)
- Psychiatric ward – a character stays briefly in a psychiatric ward and has an overall positive experience there.
- OCD – brief discussions of OCD symptoms.
- Therapy, including a brief discussion of trauma.
- Brief references to past bullying.
This Winter:
- Eating disorder – discussion and behavior
- Depression – discussion and behavior
- References to past self-harm, including a major self-harm relapse
- References to time spent at a psychiatric ward
- Ignorant views regarding mental illness
All Content Warnings can be found on Oseman’s site.
Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone (OCD)
CW: OCD, Suicide, Panic attack, Cancer, Bullying, Death of a Parent, Depression, Hallucinations, Bullying, Ableism, Intrusive Thoughts, Mentions of Self-Harm, Derealization
Little Universes by Heather Demetrios – Addiction
CW: Opioid Addiction, Overdose, Abortion, Cheating, Depression, Suicide Attempt, Death of parents, Grief
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman – Schizophrenia
CW: Schizophrenia, Depression, Suicide, Talk of death
Delicates by Brenna Thummler – depression and suicidal thoughts
CW: Depression, Suicidal thoughts, Illusions to suicide, Bullying, Grief & Loss
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